I'm getting married! The DFW way of course and need HELP!!

For practical and cheap table settings. You can buy long slim glass vases [EMAIL="99p@ikea"]99p@ikea[/EMAIL] and put dried flowers in your colour theme. The vase can be used around the home afterwards and they look fab. (we did it for my daughters wedding)>Also if you are thinking of having the choc fountain feel free to PM me we had a fantastic deal with an internet company.

My wedding was as MSE as I could make it, and although by some budgets we were expensive (about 4k) we had a wedding which looked as if it cost 3 times that. Do go looking for dresses now, you can buy the shops samples (which I did) my dress was perfect, tried on once or twice and was reduced from £1400 to £175. The shops are all trying to get rid of their samples now to get in next seasons so it's a great time to buy.

I got my shoes from ebay, but check out the bridal departments in BHS and Debenhams, they have amazing sales on. I picked up 3 lovely bridesmaids dresses in Debenhams reduced to £30 each. The girls shoes came from the BHS sale at £7 a pair. There are bridal sales everywhere right now.

I was specific about my bouquet because I had to have orchids and cala lillies in a bouquet which would sit nicely on mums grave. So I did spend silly money on that (£120) but it was the only thing which was specifically for my mum so I couldn't cut corners. However, I did look at making my own bouquet and it's pretty easy. There is a video on the wedding board which shows you how.

If you tell me where you are in the county and what kind of venue you are looking at I might be able to help. Lets just say I know people who work in most of the UK big hotel chains.

I did book last minute, I planned my wedding in less than 4 weeks. So I did have some leverage on costs. We got married at Sopwell House which is a mega posh 4 star place in Hertfordhire (The one the England football team always stays at). For £2500 we had, reception drinks, 3 course hot buffet for about 80 people with wine, an evening function room with a sandwich buffet and a free bar which was £1000, not bad considering in the evening we had 200 (300 if you count the other wedding who's guests decided our bands were better than theirs).

I didn't bother with posh cars, I had my friend put a ribbon on his Zafira I made favours for the tables with boxes from ebay decorated with little flower things (from ebay) and thorntons chocolates (which I negotiated a price on for a bulk buy) I designed all of the invites etc on vistaprint. I made a table plan on excel and made my own table setting cards.

Give me a shout if you want a hand with anything. My photos will be online on October 3rd and I'll post the website details for everyone to nosey at.

Congratulations, I do hope you enjoy the planning, I didn't find it stressful at all, I loved doing it. I hope you do too.

Congratulations!

My friends got married last year, (registry office, just close family). Then the next day, they hired the local village hall, put out chairs, got friends in a band to play music, and got a mate to be the 'minister', wrote the service themselves, and shared the wedding they wanted with their friends.

Instead of presents, they asked us all to bring food, so buffet table was heaving with fabulous home made stuff. Another friend's band played in the evening.

Gorgeous day, didn't spend much, nothing on food, only small cost of hiring local hall, and it was the most fabulous day!

Just thought I'd share that Hope you have a lovely day

x

Catw0man wrote: »

Thanks for all your help and advice. I'm in Dundee, and we are currently thinking about the Hilton Hotel as it has the cheapest(!) menu, and they give a 20% discount if you marry on a Friday - which would be fine! We will probably be inviting around 60 to a sit-down meal, and a further 100 for the evening. We were thinking about just having an evening reception but one of the venues we contacted were £500 just for the hire of the hall!!!
The wedding dress is not a problem as my mum will be making it - I want a very specific look, not something that can easily be picked up.
I will look into tying my own bouquet as I am quite artistic and like to have a personal stamp on things - I'll be making my invitations etc, that is not a problem and I found a shop in town today that sells very cheap - but very nice, card blanks.
We are hoping to get married at the end of March, so approximately 6 months.
Thanks again for your help and support, I will keep you updated on how I'm getting on!

It's march! You shouldn't be paying for hall hire. If they insist tell them that rather than pay for the hall you would prefer to put the £500 behind the bar. They won't sell that room in March so they are trying it on. With the rest of your spend they should be falling over themselves to secure your business. Tell them you have seen another venue who aren't charging hall hire.